Living Death (2006) Reviews

• Swanson's Hungry man dinners

  juliankennedy232006-12-14

  Living Death: 5 out of 10: If you ever wondered what Body Heat 2 would look like if remade this year and having Kathleen Turner reprising her original role this movie may clue one in? Kristy Swanson hasn't spent much time on the big screen since the mid-nineties and she looks like she has been eating a lot of her namesakes Hungry Man dinners. Don't get me wrong she is attractive as a full-figured woman it simply was a bit disconcerting after not seeing her for a dozen years or so. She certainly hasn't spent that time fine tuning her thespian craft however as she is defiantly the acting weak point in this little drama. The plot has Shannon Tweed/ Tim Matheson written all over it. Abusive do nothing playboy husband is killed by suffering wife and his best friend/lawyer who is now her lover. Only problem is that they choose a poison that if given in the wrong dose only causes the person to appear dead. D'oh. He comes back and gets revenge on everyone who wronged him. Sounds like your very standard erotic thriller except it isn't. There is no nudity and virtually no sex. The only bondage is the decidedly non-erotic leg breaking kind. This is a straight up horror movie and it puts the pedal to the metal. Main lead Greg Byrk captures our evil protagonist's hedonism perfectly. (The scene where he snorts coke while playing videogames is a classic.) The revenge isn't fair or just it is bloody and cruel. This creates a great vibe in the film as the only guy to root for is a remarkably unlikable rogue. In fact the film has virtually not one likable hero style character giving an almost Bad Santa feel to the proceedings. The film picks up the pace about halfway through and never lets go. Not a great film or a genre classic by any means but certainly an entertaining horror film.

• Reasonable Story, Awful Conclusion

  claudio_carvalho2007-09-14

  The masochist Elizabeth (Kristy Swanson) lives a marriage of convenience with the cynical, sadistic and reckless playboy Victor (Greg Bryk), who is the heir of a huge inheritance including the mansion where they live. She is the lover of Victor's lawyer and best friend Roman (Josh Peace), but she can not divorce Victor since she signed a prenuptial contract that would leave her with only ten thousand dollars. Roman plots with Elizabeth to poison Victor with an experimental drug, but it fails and Victor is completely paralyzed without dying. During his autopsy with three medical students, Victor awakes from his comatose status, and totally deranged, she seeks revenge using his torture chamber. "Living Death" has a good beginning and development of the story with black humor, suspense and gore, but one of the worst conclusions I have ever seen. Roman seeking Elizabeth without checking the pistol and accepting to lock his arms and legs in the torture device with an insane guy in command are terrible moments. And the last scene, with Elizabeth parking her car and going to the mansion is simply awful. In the end, this forgettable low-budget movie is a chance to see Kristy Swanson, still attractive but needing to lose some weight, on the video. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Renascido do Inferno" ("Reborn from Hell")

• Drama, comedy, gore, horror

  rick-m2007-03-05

  I almost gave up on this movie, it seemed like a drama going nowhere. After almost getting bored with the minimal acting some action kicked in with unexpected humour. Just when the laughs were rolling it turned into a gory horror movie. I gave it what for me is a pretty high rank just because it was able to switch so quickly and keep my attention. If you got an hour and half of hanging out with some friends who are OK with some gory scenes but are not big fans of movies devoted to gore-genre but want a taste of some gore with some humour thrown in then this is the movie for you . Don't watch for an emotionally enriching experience or to be challenged by the plot.

• Dumb dumb dumb

  Cablebot30002008-08-21

  Living Death is a poorly done movie. The acting is okay, but thats about it. The suspense and horror part of it sucks though, and there isn't much to work with. The script just isn't that great, and it seems like it was thrown together within just a few days. It is basically your average, trashy B-movie. If you like anyone in the cast, sure, rent it, and if you like cheesy horror films then you will like it. With the exception of those things, its a movie you should skip. (my rating)Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some drug content

• Not too bad

  dtlongo2007-01-18

  (Spoiler alert: partially discloses plot) This flick is not as bad as I might have thought. It actually has a somewhat interesting plot. The sound quality stinks though, turn it up high enough to hear the dialogue and the "music" (such as it is) is overwhelmingly loud and blasts you away. Caddish rich-heir-from-Daddy husband, sexy wife (yum, great kisser) and her lover, his best friend. Wife and lover off the cad with blowfish-poison. Only he doesn't die, he is paralyzed like dead but still sees and hears everything but can't move a muscle ("Living Death"). He wakes up on the autopsy table and goes on a revengefest. A medieval torture stretching rack features twice in this horror-genre flick. Daddy had a hobby, a fully equipped attic medieval dungeon that hubby, and implicitly his wife, use for fun and games. The movie starts with yon cad entertaining a lady friend up there with some erotic moderate stretching on a large angled rack (severe unpadded heavy iron manacles, ouch). Things go awry when his wife surprises them. Startled, he leans too hard on the lever and damages the rackee. One gets an impression of the rack's dismembering strength but pictures of the mechanism are unpersuasive, just closeups of gears meshing and chains and ropes tightening. The rack figures again at the end of the movie in the vengeancefest, this time as a torture and execution means. No erotic BDSM this time, but pain and dismemberment. The scene suggests the horror of the real thing beyond erotica when it was used for torture and punishment, much less execution. Anyway, I've seen worse horror-genre flicks. If you're a rack aficionado it's worth a look.